NAC officers and anti-corruption prosecutors of the PA are carrying out several searches of 4 suspects, this morning, in a case of abuse of office, which concerns the alleged illegalities committed in the organization of public procurement procedures at the Material Reserve Agency (MRA) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), held during 2023-2024.

According to the administered materials, public persons of the MRA are suspected of favoring an economic agent to win public tenders regarding the purchase of 25,000 m2 sheet metal reserves, in the total amount of 3,712,500 lei, which exceeds the amount stipulated in contract. In accordance with the public procurement plan for 2023, the Agency was to purchase profiled sheet metal worth 3,187,500 lei.

Moreover, knowing with certainty that the technical specifications of the economic agent do not correspond to the technical specifications of the schedule of conditions, the suspects allegedly accepted and received for safekeeping 23 rolls of profiled sheet - a total of 25,000 m2. In such circumstances, the public persons within the MRA of the MIA have damaged the state in the amount of 3,712,500 lei.

Currently, the National Anti-corruption Centre and the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office are carrying out actions to establish and document all the persons involved in the mentioned illegal actions and bring them to criminal liability. Following the searches carried out in the offices of the officials concerned and at their homes, as well as at the representatives of a company benefiting from the allegedly rigged tenders, purchase contracts and other information carriers were seized. The cargo was also sealed.

The Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office is conducting the criminal investigation jointly with the NAC. Any person is presumed to be innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is issued, and investigations in this case continue.

We remind that on April 3, 2024, 2 heads of the Material Reserves Agency (MRA) of the MIA were detained in some cases regarding the rigging of public procurements, resulting in damage to the state budget in particularly large proportions. They allegedly favored some economic agents in order to win the public tenders regarding the purchase of reserves of fuel oil, wheat, sugar, some technical equipment and vehicles.